Show SOCIETlS INHUMANITY Occasionally in real life we meet with incidents of human experience so pitiful exhibiting pathos so moving despair so black that not the vivid pen pictures of a DICKENS a READ or a HUGO are equal to them incidents too that reveal how cruel and heartless we are in our collected capacity ca-pacity as society how relentless in our persecution of the unfortunate and which further reveals how difficult a thing it is for a man to rise having once fallen Such an incident occurred the other day in the superior court of Buffalo when PETER DOBOIS told the story of his life in answer to the question of Judge HATCH if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him for horse stealing Looking squarely the judges face Dunols said I am guilty Do your rI worst and send me as long as you can I was convicted of stealing many years ago he continued Well I went to prison and served my time When 1 left prison I decided de-cided to lead an honest life but the world IS against me I got out and went to work at the Gilbert car works The foreman found out 1 was a convict I did not stay to draw my pay but left At last I got work with HARDWICKE S WARD 1 told Mr HARDWICKE I was a convict that I wanted to reform Within a short time a detective came and said the superintendent had sent him there to see how was getting along Then Mr HARDUICKE wrote a note to Superintendent Su-perintendent MORT telling him to keep the detectives away that he knew my history I got along for awhile and was happy with my wife and family Two detectives came and asked about me On Friday and on Saturday Sat-urday I was discharged The foreman said there was no more work I dont know what I did I have no recollection of taking tak-ing this horse and buggy and as I had not drank in seven years the liquor made me madThen Then as he choked with emotion his voice grew deeper and he said 11 do not ask mercy Punish me as you will I will not take my liberty and stay hero I tried to live an honest life but the detectives would not let me I want the longest sentence sen-tence possible Those are the words of a strong man borne down by the resistless cruelty of his fellow men He did wrong in stealing i in the first place It was right that he should be punished society must be protected from theives the dignity of the law must be preserved there was nothing to palliate his crime But he paid the penalty of his offense he came from prison a repentant re-pentant man with a determination to live an honest life The fact that ho went to work in dead earnest that he kept sober for several years that after being driven from his first position in the car works by detectives he went to Mr HARD WICKE and told him that he was a convict before going to work for him proves that his repentance was genuine The world against me I am guilty do your worst 1 do not ask for mercy r What a world of discouragement in those sentences What a world of grim despair they reveal They tell us of a battle bravely fought and lost by one who ought to have won but the odds were too great against him As a mariner swept from his stormtossed vessel into the raging sea and like a drop of ram he sinks into the depths with bubbling groan so PETER DUBOIS will most likely go down overwhelmed by the relentless cruelty of our human hcartless uess How many sink thus annually unwept I un-wept and unknown |